In an analyzer for analyzing a measurement result of a measurement sample prepared from a sample and a reagent, the sample is contained in a sample container and the reagent is contained in a reagent container. There are some reagents whose quality starts deteriorating immediately after the reagent containers are unsealed. Conventionally, in a case where a plurality of reagent containers each containing the same kind of reagent are set in the analyzer, at the time when the amount of the reagent contained in one reagent container has become less than a predetermined amount, quality control of the reagent remaining in another reagent container is conducted. In this manner, it is determined whether or not the reagent to be used has deteriorated.
For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2004-271265 discloses an automatic analyzer that performs, when the number of remaining tests performable with a reagent contained in one reagent container has become less than a preset number of tests, an analysis of a sample that is used for quality control (hereinafter referred to as a quality control sample) by using the reagent contained in another reagent container. When an analysis result of the quality control sample is determined to be abnormal, the reagent contained in the another reagent container is suspected to be deteriorated, and therefore, needs to be replaced.
However, in the automatic analyzer disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2004-271265, when the preset number of remaining tests is too small, analysis process by the automatic analyzer is not stopped until the analysis result of the quality control sample is obtained. Thus, the analysis process of samples using the reagent contained in the another reagent container is continued. Accordingly, when the analysis result of the quality control sample is determined to be abnormal, the samples which have been measured by using the reagent suspected to be deteriorated need to be measured again. Therefore, there is a problem that samples are consumed in vain.
Meanwhile, in a case where the preset number of remaining tests is too large, the quality control sample is analyzed when a sufficient amount of the reagent is remaining in the one reagent container. This allows that the analysis result of the quality control sample is obtained before samples are analyzed by using the reagent contained in the another reagent container. However, in a case where it takes long time until the analysis process of samples using the reagent contained in the another reagent container is performed after the analysis process of the quality control sample, the reagent in the another reagent container may deteriorate after the performance of the analysis process of the quality control sample. This makes it difficult to perform proper quality control of reagents.